Quilting With Hobbs Batting: Meet Dennis Joynt, QOV Quilter

Quilting With Hobbs Batting: Meet Dennis Joynt, QOV QuilterHobbs batting customers are the best – meet one of many who makes the world a better place by quilting for others

A quilter’s journey into this wonderful creative pursuit called quilting is often not a direct route – finding out how someone never exposed to quilting ends up pursuing this wonderful hobby is always interesting, and Dennis Joynt’s journey is no exception.

Please join us to learn a bit more about this dedicated man, a man who, along with his wife Lynn’s assistance, is creating quilts for the Quilts of Valor Foundation, a very worthy organization that aims to ‘…cover all combat service members and veterans touched by war with comforting and healing Quilts of Valor.’

Dennis, the middle child of a family of seven children (including three girls and four boys), was raised by parents who both served in the U.S. armed forces, his father serving as an enlisted man in the U.S. Coast Guard and his mother serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy.

And although Dennis was a YMCA Indian Guide and a Boy Scout, and eventually became an Eagle Scout, pursuits that could have, at the very least, exposed young Dennis to sewing on merit badges, Dennis didn’t learn to sew on a machine until he was in the U.S. Navy, where he at one time worked in a ‘sail loft’ and learned to repair large awnings while serving in Vietnam.

So how did Dennis become a quilter?

A request for a quilt from one of his granddaughters was the impetus and, at age 60, Dennis became a quilter!

Dennis shared that his first machine was a Thread Banger, a machine he purchased when his mom, whom he was visiting in FL, gave him the money to purchase it so he could make the requested quilt for his granddaughter.

Janome Thread Banger Machine

Then in January 2009, Dennis saw an article in his local newspaper – the article featured a local group that was making Quilts of Valor (QOV) quilts. The group was looking for volunteers and would be holding a meeting where work on these charity quilts would take place.

Dennis went solo to that first meeting and the rest, as they say, is history – he’s been making quilts ever since!

On January 11, 2009, Dennis was voted in as the VA Coordinator for the American Legion in his area and this position provided him the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the local VA Cemetery Director, and eventually the local Veterans Home Director, a man responsible for a home that housed 100+ veterans.

Dennis learned from the Veterans Home Director that their residents didn’t have anything ‘personal’ in their rooms and Dennis immediately set his mind to creating quilts for each of the residents who would be using the home’s 100+ 68″x84″ beds.

And of course we all know what that means, right?

Shopping for supplies!

That first shopping trip resulted in an $837 tab just for fabric – as we quilters know, only the beginning of what’s needed to create 100+ quilts. One Quilt of Valor can cost up to $250 to complete.

Dennis gladly paid that initial fabric tab and, although he does get a discount on thread through Linda’s Electric Quilters, and he’s received several donations of batting from Hobbs, in addition to several small cash donations from the Knights of Columbus of Wichita, AARP, the Retired Teachers of Laramie County and from a local couple who heard about his charitable work, he and Lynn have footed the bill for most every other associated expense since then.

As Dennis continues his work, including making quilts which are provided to veteran hospice patients, then used to cover the veteran in a ‘Final Salute‘ upon their passing, lie on the deceased’s coffin and then be given to family members, we encourage industry companies and individuals to consider donating materials and/or money to assist Dennis, and other makers of Quilts of Valor quilts, to continue their work – what better way is there to show our veterans how much we appreciate their sacrifice?

What A wonderful story. A huge thank you to Dennis Joynt and Lynn Joynt for the QOV. I know very many people, hundreds if not thousands really appreciate them too. Thank you Hobbs Batting for sharing Dennis and Lynn’s story of Charity quilts of Valor. May God continue to Bless you always always. And God bless America too.